Rockstar has turned the heat up on Sony's PlayStation 3 again last night, after a forum post by one of its reps claimed the latest PS3 firmware update, version 3.61, is to blame for reports of older PS3 models overheating and uncontrollably shutting down.
“We have received some reports of PS3s overheating while playing L.A. …

indeed

So much for the super console

Remember way back when Sony was touting the PS3 as the media hub of the home and how it would multi task video playback and making the tea? To date it's been good at playing Blu-ray discs, video games that have yet to tap it's full potential and streaming media. On the streaming media player front I suspect many users will migrate to Xbox or HTPC now that Cinavia is loaded into the PS3 firmware.

With region free blu-ray players now available with superior video processing and can act as a DLNA client too, without Cinavia limitations, the PS3 is not longer the best choice for media playback IMHO. The Oppo Bluray player or a dedicated HTPC is a better choice for videophiles.

It's only video games that are keeping the PS3 alive for now, but if Sony doesn't sort out the network issues, even exclusive titles won't save the PS3.

"It's only video games that are keeping the PS3 alive for now..."

Asides those early adopters willing to shell out 400 quid on a toy, who seriously buys a PS3 primarily for playing blu-ray disks now?

The game is just the start? No; it's the start, end, and middle too. At least, ever since Sony got rid of Other OS. Now that's a decision that I think some execs are kicking themselves over, given recent events.

Poor old Sony, I almost feel sorry for them. They've had nothing but cock-ups the last few weeks!

Well

I gotta say that my PS3 is primarily a blu-ray player and DLNA client. I intended to play games on it when I got it, I really did, but most of my games just sit and collect dust now. Ditto for my Wii and PC games and the emulation station PC I built into the case of an old NES. I just don't have the time to sit and play games anymore. If I were to go out and get a replacement for the PS3 now I would DEFINATELY not be getting another PS3.

40GB UK Fat

"any way, I have the 40GB UK Fat module, and it haven't misbehaved since I installed the update."

Me too, the report says it's only the 60/80GB UK Fat models playing up though. So I think "phew" or more likely "odd, the size of the hard disk shouldn't matter" and then subsequently "or is it all just FUD and it's just older models doing the thing they do best - failing with old age?"

re: both

"odd, the size of the hard disk shouldn't matter"

I agree, but having been inside around 5 PS3s from 40-80gb (mostly for broken BR drive mechanisms or YLODs) I can confirm that I've never seen two that have been the same, on the inside atleast. Sony seem to have revised the innards quite alot since the original models - including replacing the original 19 blade fan with a cheaper and crapper 15 blade version which IMO contributes alot to the amount of YLODed consoles out there - (in my experience it is usually caused by repeated and prolonged overheating, melting the solder on some of the chips and breaking contact with the board, causing the yellow hardware failure light to come on).

I have a 60gb older model (read: bought on uk release day) which did get the YLOD once but has behaved since I fixed it, and didn't get noticeably warmer after 3.61.

That said, I was playing MGS4 on a friends' console (60gb model, slightly newer) last night and after 45 minutes it beeped three times and switched itself off.

Overheating

It might help if people cleared the vents occasionally. I had issues with my old PS3 getting louder and louder until I took the trouble to hoover about half a pound of dust from the vents. I actually do expect it to fail someday soon, but then I've had it since shortly after launch so it's already lasted as long as about 5 xbox's - actually facetious comments aside it really has outlasted my friends 360, and its warranty replacement.

by telling everyone it will YLOD their consoles?

All according to plan...

Hmm... lets see. What are the ingredients here?

Take a 4 year old console that's been heavily played. Stir in a power hungry CPU and GPU combination that put's out considerable watts of heat. Add some thermal paste that is aging, and 1 aging fan that contains 4 years of accumulated dust and grime. Mix well and add to a PSU that's aging and less efficient than it used to be and you have a recipe for excess heat production in an environment that cannot remove the heat as effectively as it could when new.

Now, take that recipe and bake with new games that push the performance of the hardware further and further and you end up with a situation where older consoles stand a decent chance of overheating - thanks to their age. It's inevitable really. Heck, I have an older PC at home that needed a new video card because the Geforce 7x00 series GPU in it fried itself after 5 years, and that's in a well ventilated case with two extra fans.

This isn't the firmware, as much as the haters and conspiracy theorists would like it to be, it just isn't. It's consoles that were state of the art when built, and running at the edge of the envelope in terms of the thermal performance of the system. There's really no surprise here for anyone, A system's thermal performance will decrease as it ages, it simply will not remove as much heat as it did when new. yet at the same time the PSU becomes less efficient and produces more heat and software places ever greater demands on the hardware resulting in more heat.

The system is designed to cope with that, but some will perform less well than the reference design, and they may suffer a failure as the heat outpaces the cooling. Anything else would be a great surprise.

What can be done? Well, if you own an older PS3, have it professionally cleaned, have new thermal paste applied to the heat sink, consider replacing the power supply with a newer, more efficient one and possibly replace the fan with a new one. these are all sensible precautions you would take with an older PC - assuming you wanted to keep it running. Why would we imagine a PS3 (or 360) would be any different?

dont want crappy new one

i very much like my old fat 80gb model - it plays PS2 games, its got SDCard for data and its got more USB. it used to run Linux 'til Sony started messing around and removing features from my console for me (thanks Sony - thaks a lot - I bought a Toshiba TV instead of a Sony TV because of that - and I'm about to buy an Amazon Kindle instead of a Sony e-reader because of that too - after all, what if you decide to stop me reading certain formats of books on it in the future? )